kasen renga haikai solo
by mandala
april-june 2005
まんだら独吟
2005.4-6
1. 春風や店先の独活包み行く
spring breeze
goes caressing udos
at a shop front
2. 室の闇ぬけ散り初めの午後
through a dark cellar into the afternoon
cherry-blossoms start fluttering down
3. 野に遊ぶ人影二三かげろいて
heat haze
blurring human figures
two, three, on a picnic
4. 幼き夢を水彩で描く
painting a juvenile fancy
in watercolors
5. 猫が背を逆立つ屋根に細い月
the crescent moon
cats curl themselves up
on the roof
6. 鳴く虫遠く高層住まい
I live in a highrise
far from singing crickets
7. そぞろ寒紅の一瓶待ち焦がれ
feeling somewhat cold
I’m thirsty for a flask
of coming Beaujolais Nouveau
8. 年を重ねて味の出る句も
as you age some verses may turn
to be more charming
9. 蝉時雨長き土中のおもいなり
a flooding chorus of cicadas
is years’ feelings
buried underground
10. 水無瀬川にて道行はてて
at the end of runaway
lovers jumped to the Minase River
11. 禅僧が笠を斜めに雨の寺
a zen monk walks fast
tilting his straw hat aslant
a temple in the rain
12. 笹にひと風朝日玉散る
a wind to bamboo grass leaves
flashes beads of morning light
13. 火焔山立ち尽くす我焼きつくす
I stand there in a daze
and be burned out
the Flaming Mountains
14. はるか康国塔月青し
a long way to Samarkand
a blue mosque under the blue moon
15. 小船出し鯨追う日々島暮らし
sailing small boats
they chase a whale
the days of islanders
16. 水没国の民もいるとか
they say there’re people
of a submerging country
17. せかされて花と散りたる無念さよ
how resentful are those
pressed to die young
as cherry blossoms scatter
18. かさねが渕のくちなわじょうご
don’t look into the abyss
otherwise you’d be dissolved in
19. いそいそと都踊りに人は溶け
joyfully personae
dissolve to the mass
of Miyako Odori dance
20. ゴーゴーミュンヘン敵蹴散らして
go! go! Munich
putting rivals to rout
21. 地鳴り聞き海鳴り聞くも憂き世なり
to hear the sea roaring
and the ground rumbling
this is the world as it is
22. 三十六計尽き果てにけり
no more ideas
I have been wiped out
23. とりたてて苦もなき雪の常盤松
an evergreen pine
though covered by snow
does not show any worries
24. 赤い毛糸の帽子かぶって
putting a cap on
knit out of red wool
26. 瞳にはラピスラズリの青い空
in your eyes
I see the blue skies
of lapis lazuli
26. なぜかピエロはいつも絶望
a clown always seems to be
in despair, I don’t know why
27. 王手飛車それはないよちょっと待て
just wait
forking-rook-checking-king
how merciless
28. ドミノ倒れずれ冷戦は消ゆ
with dominoes not falling down
the cold war has gone away
29. 息殺し月のベルリン検問所
holding the breath
we passed through moonlit Berlin
to Checkpoint Charlie
30. 大列柱を秋風が抜く
an autumn wind blows
across the grand hypostyle hall
31. 里山の草紅葉にも霜見えて
frost appearing
on colored grass
of the village environment
32. 高い山から羊連れ来る
shepherds drive down
sheep from a high mountain
33. ちらちらと銭箱横目笛を吹く
while playing a flute
the musician casts glances
at the donation bowl
34. 右肩おちて久しくなりぬ
a long time since we drooped our shoulders
in the end of ever-growing economy
35. 花の波北へ高きへ押し寄せる
going north, climbing high
moves on
the cherry-blossom front
36. 日本海いま光満ちたり
now full of sunshine
over the Sea of Japan